The present invention relates generally to an electronic offer management system and method thereof, and more particularly to a system that enables the electronic management of offers distributed by a plurality of different offer distributors to customers and the dynamic profiling of such customers so that improved offer targeting can be achieved.
Today, about twenty percent (20%) of all sales in grocery retail are covered by some promotion or offer. These offers are found in a variety of forms including temporary price reductions, in-store displays, manufacturer-sponsored coupon offers, advertisements, and frequent shopper (i.e., loyalty) discounts. Traditionally, such offers have been distributed to customers via “physical” media (i.e. direct mailers, printers, displays at the register, Sunday coupon inserts, magazines, etc.). Given the manual nature of such a system of distribution, however, customer-specific offers based on a variety of factors, such as demographics, past purchasing behavior, and price sensitivity are impractical. This in turn has a substantial impact on the effectiveness and cost of providing offers through such a system. For retailers having numerous competing product lines, such as supermarkets, this offer targeting capability is critical. Moreover, clearing and settlement of offers distributed in such a manner is technically infeasible with respect to time, labor and thus, cost intensive.
With the advent of the Internet as a new ecommerce tool, offers are now also being distributed “virtually” to customers. For example, companies such as Cool Savings, PlanetU and ValuPage are operating websites from which customers can obtain coupons redeemable at various retail stores and supermarkets, as well as at stores having an online presence. Traditional retailers are also beginning to distribute offers online. For example, Schnucks supermarket provides it's weekly advertisements, as well as coupons online. Offer targeting across a plurality of different offer distributors or based on “non-customer” data, such as price, is not allowed. Moreover, the clearance and settlement of such offers are still performed largely through a manual process and in a decentralized manner. As a result, fraudulently fabricated offers cannot be accurately tracked and thus, prevented.
Finally, under current methods of offer distribution, retailers must customize their point-of-sale (POS) system according to each offer distributor's technical design structure. In addition, the entire offer transaction from creation through redemption, clearance and settlement is not centralized, thereby increasing the complexity of the interfaces needed between the parties to the entire transaction. Moreover, data relevant to the transaction and necessary for sophisticated levels of targeting cannot be obtained from a single source, thereby decreasing its accessibility, accuracy and completeness. Given that the primary purpose of providing such offers is to drive up the number of new sales, the inability to manage electronic offers in a centralized manner and to dynamically profile customers and target offers increases the overall costs and effectiveness of the offers.
Accordingly, there is a need for an electronic offer management system in which offers can be distributed by a plurality of different offer distributors for automatic routing to a store's point of sale system, and in which such offers can be automatically cleared and settled once redeemed, such that an electronic audit of the entire offer transaction, and dynamic profiling of customers for improved offer targeting can be achieved.